The Gathering

Collectors of small-scale die-cast cars, particularly Matchbox, are meeting in Albuquerque from July 17-19, at the annual Matchbox Collectorâ€™s Community Hall (MCCH) convention. â€œThe Gathering,â€ as itâ€™s known, comes to the Albuquerque Marriott, on Louisiana Boulevard, two weeks from now.

Never heard of it? MCCH is a long-standing small-scale message board, friendly with but not affiliated with Mattel, that concentrates on aspects of the storied Matchbox die-cast brand (check out www.mboxcommunity.com) along with other brands.

Collectors from the four corners of America are due to arrive, as well as guests from Canada and England, among other far-flung locales. And itâ€™s not every die-cast message board that gets Mattel employees out en masse to celebrate.

The event itself is sold out â€” no more special Friday night dinners are available, no more room in the seminars, no more can be squeezed into the sneak-peeks delivered by Mattel employees, and only a limited quantity of rooms are still available. If you missed out, donâ€™t fear: One of the ballrooms has been reserved as a selling quarters for Sunday the 19th, open to the general public, and you can check things out there.

On Friday and Saturday, thereâ€™s the room-to-room trading. For those who have never been to a die-cast convention, we have to say… room-to-room buying/selling/trading is the most mind-blowing thing a die-cast fan can do. Walk into a room, and see hundreds of models spread out on every possible surface â€” beds, ironing boards, side tables â€” all for purchase or sale. And not just Matchbox either: Weâ€™ve got it on good authority that sellers will have all manner of small-scale die-cast available for sale from brands both obvious and obscure, a lot of which youâ€™ve read about in this section every week. Old, new, itâ€™ll be all over the map.

Suddenly, driving to the desert in July makes a whole lot more sense.

(This post originally appeared in the July 2, 2009, issue of the Hemmings eWeekly Newsletter.)